OSGeo Membership

2006 Geot=
ools decides to join OSGeo

In 2006, the Project Management Committee (PMC) governing the Geotools p=
roject decided to join the newly formed Open Source Geospatial Foundation, known informally as OSGeo.

=20

OSGeo currently aims to serve as an umbrella organization for free and o=
pen source software projects in the domain of Geographic Information System=
s.

=20

2006-2008 Geo=
tools in OSGeo incubation

=20

Starting in 2006, Geotools has been undergoing the OSGeo incubation proc=
ess during which all new projects resolve all outstanding issues required t=
o be resolved prior to acceptance in the foundation. For Geotools, the rema=
ining issues which need resolution are the clarification of the copyright s=
ituation and the cleanup of the project materials to fully document the cop=
yright and license of all the materials. Geotools has been working concurre=
ntly on two aspects of this work:

=20
=20

Creation of a copyright assignment document so users could assign their=
copyright to the OSGeo foundation.

=20

The formal review of the provenance and licensing of all the project ma=
terial, principally the code.

=20
=20

Copyright Assignmen=
t Agreement

=20

Many Geotools contributors had assigned their copyright to the Geotools =
Project Management Committee. This was intended to make it easier for the p=
roject to adapt to new legal situations by re-licensing the code as needed.=
Unfortunately, because the PMC has no formal legal standing, this approach=
to copyright assignment was apparently legally incorrect and technically t=
he copyright has stayed with the original authors.

=20

Part of the incubation effort has been to develop for OSGeo a copyright =
assignment document which geotools contributors could sign in order to give=
the project as much flexibility as possible to deal with future licensing =
issues.

=20

In January 2008, the text of the OSGeo copyright assignment agreement wa=
s accepted by the OSGeo board thus completing a year's worth of work on the=
document. The final document can be obtained from the following links in <=
a href=3D"/download/attachments/9765352/GeotoolsAssignmentToOSGeo.pdf?versi=
on=3D1&modificationDate=3D1201001714480&api=3Dv2">PDF or in OpenOffice Document=
Format.

=20

In late january 2008, a proposal will be made to have all core contribut=
ors sign the document and thus bring the bulk of the copyright to the OSGeo=
foundation.

=20

Provenance Review

=20

The provenance of the Geotools code has undergone a complete review betw=
een releases 2.2 and 2.4 to establish the origins of the code which it cont=
ains. The bulk of geotools is code contributed by individual coders. Some c=
ode was taken from previous projects, either distributed under license or e=
xisting in the public domain.

Each module should now have a file called "review.txt" which c=
ontains a list of all the code whose origins are unknown or unclear.

=20

Geotools plans to address all of the issues documented in the "revi=
ew.txt" files so as to formally document the origins of all the code i=
n the Geotools code base.

=20

License

=20

The license terms covering the Geotools code has also undergone a comple=
te review along with the provenance review. The bulk of the Geotools code i=
s licensed under the Lesser General Public License, LGPL. The documentation=
will eventually be distributed under the terms of the Free Documentation L=
icense, FDL. The demo/ directory of the code contains many examples which w=
ould be placed in the public domain if that were possible and which therefo=
re will be licensed under the terms of a highly permissive license such as =
the revised Berkeley Standard Distribution license, BSD.

=20

Along with the provenance review, the "review.txt" files list =
all the code distributed under license terms other than the LGPL.

=20

Geotools plans to address all of the issues documented in the "revi=
ew.txt" files so as to ensure that all the code in Geotools can eventu=
ally be distributed under the terms of the LGPL. Where necessary existing c=
ode will be rewritten.

=20

Copyright

=20

The copyright of the Geotools code has traditionally rested predominantl=
y with the "Geotools Project Management Committee." Unfortunately=
, this entity does not have any legal standing so cannot legally hold the c=
opyright to the code base.

=20

Several solutions to this issue have been proposed:

=20
=20

Copyright could remain with the original programmers. Formally, this is=
the current legal situation. For inclusion in OSGeo following this strateg=
y, contributors would have to sign a statement formally placing their contr=
ibutions under the LGPL.

=20

Copyright could be transfered to OSGeo. This has several advantages:=20

=20

The OSGeo is a legal entity which can hold the copyright,

=20

The OSGeo could represent the interests of the Geotools projects in a c=
ourt of law both to defend from lawsuits and to sue those violating the ter=
ms of the license to the code base,

=20

The OSGeo could re-license the code or the documentation if the legal s=
ituation changes to show that the licenses fail to protect some essential f=
reedom or some provision of those licenses are found to be invalid. T=
his last issue also raises a significant disadvantage in that contributors =
must trust that OSGeo will stay true to its charter and protect the code. F=
or inclusion in OSGeo following this strategy, contributors would have to s=
ign a statement formally granting OSGeo the copyright to their contribution=
s.

=20

=20
=20

Several of the core Geotools programmers have agreed to propose that Geo=
tools follow the second strategy and that all contributors to Geotools sign=
a copyright transfer agreement to grant OSGeo the copyright over their con=
tributions.